“So who the hell is ‘Scott Thomas’?”
posted at 10:08 am on July 20, 2007 by Allahpundit
Greyhawk considers the possibilities. A soldier turned liar? A soldier turned sadist, who participated in the acts he describes? Or is he not a soldier at all but rather some opportunistic bottom feeder with a feel for the type of sweet nothings the left likes having whispered in its ear? Follow the link and place your bets now; I suspect we’ll have closure on this from TNR next week one way or another.
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I never understand why John Kerry ran for president even though he admitted he had commited war crimes in Vietnam. A Senate hearing isn’t a confessional booth – he shouldn’t get away with it.
aengus on July 20, 2007 at 10:10 AM
I never could understand, that is.
aengus on July 20, 2007 at 10:12 AM
Must be Harry Reid’s brainchild.
Smart, very smart.
Nice move Harry in getting rid of Tommy.
Mcguyver on July 20, 2007 at 10:17 AM
I think he’s a relative of Jamil Hussein.
flipflop on July 20, 2007 at 10:20 AM
opportunistic bottom feeder it is
Spirit of 1776 on July 20, 2007 at 10:23 AM
Scott Thomas is not military and has a bone to pick with soldiers. A basic training drop out is my guess.
Do we know WHERE this guy is? Is he in Iraq or his mommas basement?
csdeven on July 20, 2007 at 10:23 AM
One vote for basement.
Kowboy on July 20, 2007 at 10:24 AM
He’s a hero of course ….. er, to the Democrats.
fogw on July 20, 2007 at 10:27 AM
DFAC? Chow hall??
WTF????
Krykee. I’m old.
But Greyhawk is a great read! and points to why the leftist utopians will always fail – the refusal to recognize the importance of consistency & common sense.
This s. thomas fella is simply more lube for the leftist utopian circlejerk – the facts be damned.
locomotivebreath1901 on July 20, 2007 at 10:38 AM
flipflop on July 20, 2007 at 10:20 AM
Heh heh I suggested something to that affect yesterday.
doriangrey on July 20, 2007 at 10:38 AM
As an ex-tanker, and in ref to the ‘dog’ story….pretty good trick ‘dragging’ the dog with the track. The track on the ground is stationary. As the tank moves forward it picks up links at the back. Hard to ‘drag’ a dog with a stationary object.
Limerick on July 20, 2007 at 10:39 AM
Limerick on July 20, 2007 at 10:39 AM
What the he!! are you trying to? Interject facts into fiction?
doriangrey on July 20, 2007 at 10:43 AM
Depends. My son is in the Navy. It’s still the Chow Hall.
Tull fan?
Kowboy on July 20, 2007 at 10:49 AM
Is he related to Helen Thomas?
cjn on July 20, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Right after I posted that, it occurred to me that Jesse MacBeth might be an even better parallel…faux GIs airing “dirty laundry”.
flipflop on July 20, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Kowboy on July 20, 2007 at 10:49 AM
Steam locomotive fan.
locomotivebreath1901 on July 20, 2007 at 10:51 AM
Well, duh. The dog would stay put while the BFV moved over and past it. But someone who has no familiarity with tracked vehicles and has an overactive imagination and an agenda to push would easily overlook a little detail like that so that he could stick the “dragged the poor doggie” into the narrative.
Very nice point, Limerick. “Scott Thomas” is no soldier, and he’s never seen Iraq but on a map.
Pablo on July 20, 2007 at 10:53 AM
I’m going with Bottom Feeder.
This guy’s knowledge of the military is so rudimentary it’s like he got it all from watching M*A*S*H.
Lehosh on July 20, 2007 at 10:56 AM
Ah.
Locomotive Breath – Jethro Tull
Aqualung Album – 1972
I’m old too. :-)
Kowboy on July 20, 2007 at 10:59 AM
Who is TNR’s mysterious author ‘Scott Thomas’?
Clifton Hicks?
Connie on July 20, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Somewhere in the very near future….Scott Thomas, KIA by IED, no remains recoverable.
serenity on July 20, 2007 at 11:04 AM
Kowboy on July 20, 2007 at 10:59 AM
In the shuffling madness Of the locomotive breath, Runs the all-time loser, Headlong to his death…
Yea, those were the days…..
doriangrey on July 20, 2007 at 11:05 AM
What the hell? Doesn’t TNR remember Stephen Glass?
SWLiP on July 20, 2007 at 11:08 AM
The New Republic must produce their war correspondent.
What a magazine. Imbedded reporters to them means writing fiction from bed in a basement somewhere in the USA.
naliaka on July 20, 2007 at 11:11 AM
A very visible source needs to go on the record accusing the New Republic of fabricating the entire thing intentionally. They can accuse Rumsfeld of having personal knowledge of every act of perversion at Abu Graib and get away with it but everyone else has to pussyfoot around making the same accusation against them.
peacenprosperity on July 20, 2007 at 11:17 AM
Hey Scott Thomson, whoever you are, get a clue you POS!
csdeven on July 20, 2007 at 11:23 AM
The whole story is a little too Vietnamesque, including some of the lingo. The D-FAC/Chow Hall thing is a prime example. I am still on the whole “we spent a lot of time digging” kick. OK, maybe filling sand bags could be considered digging, but seriously, ever hear of a SEE? OK, I’ve never been to a COP, FOB or LSA. In fact I only left the SPOD a handful of times, but with HESCO concertainers, and barrier materials, most bases are built from the ground up, not dug down. The era of foxholes and trenches is long over.
BohicaTwentyTwo on July 20, 2007 at 11:38 AM
Amen, brother, Amen.
My nephew is a gunner in a Bradley, 5th ID, in the thick of things in IRAQ. I can’t imagine anything closely resembling the truth to this Scott Thomas piece. The military there in IRAQ is all for one, one for all. A true brotherhood. If anyone did the kinds of things that “Scott Thomas” was doing, they’d be called down HARD and court martialed quickly.
Tennman on July 20, 2007 at 11:40 AM
I’ve leaned toward that one since the beginning, AP. People who want to tell lies and want them to be believed will construct the lie to be believeable to the best of their ability.
The essence of Scott Thomas’ lie is that he is in the military and had these experiences. But his ability to construct stories about the bad behavior of troops doesn’t match his would be ability to tell them based on the sum of his would be experience in telling them.
Some might argue his only lie is just that he put himself in events he had heard of from others but that falls apart for the same reason, the stories he tells don’t reflect his would be ability based his would be experience.
Same for story inflation. Just like the big catch story, the fish won’t change to a saltwater one or exceed the weight limit of the fish until it passes through the non-fisherman, as the Bradley did when it became a Monster Truck hybrid with an I-beam front end.
I’ve stayed in the ‘lean towards not military’ column because there is still the possibility that Thomas is one or a group of troops that have constructed the stories to pull a stunt reminiscent of Alan Sokal. It would be in poor taste and worse, but entirely understandable considering the attitude created by the MSM as a whole in many of the troops in Iraq.
Dusty on July 20, 2007 at 11:52 AM
I’ve contacted both TNR and IVAW regarding the Thomas claims.
Specifically, I’ve asked what steps TNR took to verify the claims and objectively report them, while asking IVAW members Peters and Hicks if they have direct knowledge of these claims from their tours at Falcon. I’ve also asked them if IVAW members had any role in the Thomas/TNR story. If they aren’t involved, they deserve that to be on the record to counter claims that I’ve seen that they may be.
Bob Owens on July 20, 2007 at 12:02 PM
Well this gets a little weirder. I have a brother serving over in the Middle East right now and his first name and middle Initial is “Scott Thomas”.
However he isnt in Baghdad. Isnt Army and is as hardcore pro US and military as I am.
William Amos on July 20, 2007 at 12:17 PM
I just read this crap.
The soldier is dancing around with
a skull on his head,etc,etc.
No way i don’t believe it.
First stop on the web is HOT AIR,
second stop is the best military blog,
OPFOR.www.OPFOR.COM
canopfor on July 20, 2007 at 12:41 PM
Yep, he’s in her basement.
Harpoon on July 20, 2007 at 12:48 PM
what bothers me most about this story, is that he was so tormented with his own moral and legal failings as an American soldier, is that the first, the very first thing he does, is get paid to write an article for an known partisan periodical.
cadetwithchips2 on July 20, 2007 at 12:53 PM
So who the hell is Scott Thomas?
Why, another Stephen Glass of course.
mram on July 20, 2007 at 12:55 PM
A John Kerry sock puppet.
dingoatemebaby on July 20, 2007 at 1:34 PM
What do these people have in common:
Scott Thomas
Jamil Hussein
Omar al-Baghdadi
BohicaTwentyTwo on July 20, 2007 at 1:42 PM
I am betting there are different terms in use in different units, etc. That being said, when I was in the Navy, no one referred to it as a DFAC, Dining Facility or Chow Hall . . . It was called the “mess” or “mess hall”. There was an “officer’s mess”, an “enilisted mess” a “Chief’s mess”, even a “dirty shirt mess”, etc.
I really don’t think the terminology is key here, there are for too many other big problems with those stories to base a critique on the terminology associated with where military folks eat.
Fatal on July 20, 2007 at 1:59 PM
Navy = mess decks
dingbat on July 20, 2007 at 2:56 PM
Maybe not, but his soul is just as ugly as hers.
N. O'Brain on July 20, 2007 at 2:58 PM
Someone brought this up on Digg and I thought it was worth mentioning. We can go over the negative details of this story over and over again, but what about the positive aspects of it? Specifically, who is this amazing hero of a woman at FOB Falcon? I’m not trying to be sarcastic or anything, but there is no other way I can think of to describe this person. Here is someone who has been horrifically disfigured while serving their country, either as a contractor or a soldier, and has had the courage and fortitude to return to the theatre and continue doing her job. In my eyes the inner beauty of this person far outshines any celebutante or rehab failure that our society panders to.
BohicaTwentyTwo on July 20, 2007 at 3:14 PM
Excellent song btw~! That comments shows my age :)!
OT~ I vote this Scott Thomas is not military. I doubt he has ever seen Iraq. He’s pandering too much to the leftists.
Suz on July 20, 2007 at 4:26 PM
I think we’ll know more about this Scott Thomas by who tries to coin political currency out of these stories. If HClinton and Obama never touch these stories, they are probably the work of some ‘wannabe’ John Kerry(Winter Soldier Investigation during Vietnam).
They wouldn’t use the stories as the writer is unknown; they are each playing a safe, no nonsense game, and wouldn’t want to have a story they were aggressively pushing turn out to be a fraud. Too much is at stake.
However…just like the collusion between CBS News and the source for those fake Bush memos, if the creator of these slanders is known to the DNC, HClinton or Obama might run with it.
Doug on July 21, 2007 at 1:34 AM